What if God is a delusion that believers share together?

[ndf8th]

What if God is a delusion
that believers share together?

Dawkins wrote a book named
The God Delusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Delusion

The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book
by English biologist Richard Dawkins, ...

In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator
almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god
qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief
held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.
...

now suppose that most believers would say that Dawkins is wrong.
The believers maybe say their personal experiences tells them
that God is alive and answer their prayers and that they feel God.

Atheists would say that most likely God is a delusion or some atheists
would only say. I lack believe in gods.

suppose I as an experiment just accept what Dawkins say.
suppose I say. Yes God is a shared delusion by some believers.

what if I say God is a delusion that believers share together?

And if I really take that seriously and believe in it.
I guess some believers and some atheists would
find my assertion rather ridiculous? why is that so?

Why can it not be the best explanations there is for the presence of God
in human culture. some 6000 named gods that almost none believe in now
and a few remaining gods that very many do believe in.

Why did some gods die out or why did the believers stop believing in them?

My wild suggestion is that as long as
God is a delusion that believers share together
then that god may survive for as long they act on
that belief together.

sorry confusing logic there but maybe you get what I try to say.

the important thing is not that it is a delusion the important thing
is that they act upon the delusion together in a way that works for them.

Their acts of faith support that delusion of their particular God
and depending on how effectively their acts of faith get spread
that particular delusion of God get more supporters and stay alive.

What does the word delusion mean?
a false belief or opinion

Psychiatry. a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason
or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion.

Delusion come from verb to delude
to mislead the mind or judgment of;
to deceive

the important things is that it is a shared delusion. that the believers
delude each other together for to support each others faith.

I find it rather likely to be the best explanation of why it works.

Now the big difference. AFAIK many atheists wants
to use this idea as a mean to make religious faith obsolete
or to be as little exposed as possible. A private faith not public.

My suggestion is that one do the opposite.
One trust this is the truth about God and religion
and take responsibility for making the delusion
better and better until it is a safe product that one
can make use of without it being harmful to anybody.

Humans made the gods and we should take responsibility
for what we make belief and make it safe to use as a tool
for togetherness.

[Nilloc James]

The syllogism is trivial. A concept that exists exists. Not that revealing.

[ndf8th]

Doesn't need to be non-trivial at all.
What matters is if it works and are ethically okay.

Take this experiment they did recently
with kids that have severe head ache.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/ ... 2S20130128

Placebo as good as most drugs for kids' migraines

Placebo is a kind of faith. or trust in what those supposed to
know things say. It is about confidence and reliance on others.

The only difference is that the placebo
is not supposed to be supernatural.

The reason a God is supernatural is to be able to create all there is.
they set the text up to declare that if a God is supernatural then
that allow it to do a lot of things it could not do if natural.

so it is a rhetoric trick of confidence in those supposed to know.

But they have no evidence so all of it is based on gullibility or credulity
and Children is more trusty due to lack of experience that adults lie about things.

The older they get the more suspicious they get that not every adult tell truth

They write:

POWER OF PLACEBO?

In the new analysis, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics,
placebo pills alone led to a drop in kids' headache frequency
from between five and six headaches per month to three per month.

That may have to do with the effect of seeing a doctor and
being reassured the pain isn't due to anything serious, Bickel said.

almost identical to what they do in religious traditions.
They have or put faith and trust and confidence in
their Leaders to know that God really take care of them.

Has nothing to do with being a trivial truth.
It is about if it works or not and how ethical is it
to lure people to have confidence in a lie.

God may be very similar to Placebo.
God feels good for some believer.

that is what the word placebo means.

[Middle English, from Late Latin placb,
I shall please

(the first word of the first antiphon of the service),
first person sing. future tense of Latin placre,
to please; see plk-1 in Indo-European roots.]

Believers often stress that God is love and that Jesus is a savor
and the being in Heaven is very pleasing.

Entertainment is a huge industry. Gaming and Movie making
and Music and Team Sport are mega huge so no trivial thing at all.

Statistics say there are more people going to church a than going to football match.

I found it very surprising because the churches are empty on Sunday
but they count the music masses they have and then it is smock full.

[this-gospel]

[Replying to post 1 by ndf8th]

NOT in a Million years! I know who God is and God knows me.

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die. (1 Corinthians 15:32) Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. (1 Corinthians 15:33)

[McCulloch]

[Replying to post 1 by ndf8th]

NOT in a Million years! I know who God is and God knows me.

This answer does not help. If God was real, you would say that God knows you and that you know God. On the other hand, if God were a delusion, you would say that God knows you and that you know God. So, how is it that you know that God is not a delusion?

[jeager106]

[Replying to post 14 by McCulloch]

And what if this is a delusion?
What if all religions were a delusion?
What would that really mean?
Wonder? Has anyone here lived with a skizophrenic?
Delusional big time but they believe the delusions are real so to them
the delusion is part of reality.
Really tho that is pretty scary.

[jeager106]

Definiton of delusion:
: a belief that is not true : a false idea

: a false idea or belief that is caused by mental illness

Which type delusion do you refer?

If the first one, assuming 2.4 billion Christians aren't all schizophenic, is a lot of delusional people.
Here is a thought.
Faith is a belief in something that can not be proved or disproved.
No one can prove a power greater than mankind does not exist.
No one can prove h.p. does exist.
It's up to the individual to determine why they have a faith, if that faith has meaning and how it has meaning.
That is subjective.
Listen: I saw Jesus in a cloud. Jesus face in a piece of burnt toast.
So that settles all arguments.
Scientific reasoning is a non theist exercise in mental masterbation when dealing with a strong faith in a deity.